The City of Peterborough is one of three Ontario municipalities that have received the 2024 Peter J. Marshall Award from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), with Peterborough receiving the award for its modular bridge housing community project.
The award was presented to Peterborough mayor Jeff Leal on Tuesday (August 20) during the AMO’s annual conference in Ottawa.
In May 2023, Peterborough city council approved the modular bridge housing community project as part of a homelessness services plan to help end a controversial tent encampment near the Wolfe Street shelter.
By fall 2023, the city had constructed 50 modular homes, shared washroom facilities, and a central service hub using funding through the Ontario government’s homelessness prevention program.
According to the city, within the project’s first six months of operation, four people acquired jobs, one person moved into permanent housing, and there was a 90 per cent reduction in emergency service calls compared to when the site operated as an encampment.
Staff have also reported significant improvements in the mental and physical health of the residents.
“This award is a testament to our city’s commitment to addressing homelessness with compassion, creativity, and a focus on practical solutions,” said Mayor Leal in a media release.
“As a council, we knew we had to move beyond the natural tendency to stop when faced with an overwhelmingly complex challenge like homelessness. We knew we had to pick a lane. We learned from the experiences of others and our professional staff delivered this project with urgency and expertise.”
Along with city staff, Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith was at the AMO conference to celebrate the award.
“The modular home program at Wolfe Street is a great example of a municipality thinking outside of the box to properly use the homelessness prevention program to reduce homelessness in Peterborough’s vulnerable community,” MPP Smith said.
Along with the City of Peterborough, the Regional Municipality of York also received the Peter J. Marshall Award its automated transit facility inspection program, as did the Town of Midland for its project to use artificial intelligence for enhanced risk assessments for water and wasterwater infrastructure.
Named after one of the province’s youngest and most innovative municipal finance commissioners, the Peter J. Marshall Award recognizes municipal governments demonstrating excellence in the use of innovative approaches to improve capital or operating efficiency and to generate effectiveness through alternative service delivery initiatives and partnerships.
Municipal governments submit nominations for the award, which are then reviewed by a selection committee. Awards for up to three municipal projects are selected each year, with the recipients announced during the AMO annual conference.
